The lost decade 1878-1888 (Part 1)
Donald Macleod explores Tchaikovsky’s life away from home. He spent significant parts of his peak years travelling or staying with friends, writing the works we celebrate today
Donald Macleod explores Tchaikovsky’s life away from home. He spent significant parts of his peak years travelling or staying with friends, and a remarkable amount of his music was composed whilst staying with friends, on holiday or concert tours, or sometimes as a fugitive on the run. This evolved into a full decade of rootless wandering, which is peculiar given his frequent homesickness for Russia.
Today, we look at the first part of T’s so-called Lost Decade of wandering – primarily in Italy – and we explore the unconventional relationship he had with his chief benefactor, Nadezhda von Meck.
Suite No 1 in D Major, Op 43:
I. Introduzione e fuga: Andante sostenuto - Moderato e con anima
Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Neeme Järvi, conductor
6 Romances, Op 38: No 6, Pimpinella (arr. E. Firsova)
Anna Netrebko, soprano
St. Petersburg Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra
Valery Gergiev, conductor
The Maid of Orleans, Op 4, Act I:
Aria: Da, chas nastal - Ja, es ist Zeit … Lebt wohl, ihr Berge
Brigitte Fassbaender, mezzo-soprano (Joan of Arc)
Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra
Hans Graf, conductor
Capriccio Italien, Op 45
Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Orchestra
Neville Marriner, conductor
Mazeppa: Act II, Scene 2:
O, Mariya, Mariya! (Mazepa)
Sergey Leiferkus, baritone (Mazepa)
Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra
Neeme Järvi, conductor
Vesper Service, Op 52:
Blagoslovi, dushe moya, Ghospoda (Bless the Lord, O my soul) - Ghospodi, vozzvah (Lord, I Call to Thee)
Leningrad Glinka State Academic Choir
Alexander Tchernushenko, director
Produced by Iain Chambers for ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Audio Wales & West
On radio
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